I’ve been with the club since my 1st year but the first year was very different as it was during the pandemic. We heard a lot from our seniors about how these experiences with the children changed their lives but unluckily I could not experience it initially and could only make worksheets and materials. It was only after I became a lead that I could finally visit a school. I’ve always had this passion, even before I became a lead, but after? After I became a lead and had my first school visit, it changed something in me. It made me realise how important what we do is and what an impact it would create on every single child there. Even if we impacted a few, it would make a big difference.

Something else that really impacted my experience is when we went for our outreach programme Sneham. That was with a smaller group of children, meaning there was a lot more time spent one on one with the kids. During that time, we could visibly see a difference in every session we spent with the kids. These one-on-one sessions brought in little extra attention that helped the kids a lot.

There were two kids that particularly stood out. One of the older kids was very interested in science but admitted that math was a weakness. When we tried to teach him a couple of topics, he understood them instantly and was eager to learn more. He proceeded to tell me what topics I should teach him next time. Second, there was a younger boy who only attended because he was bored. We found out that he wasn’t going to school that year as his family couldn’t afford to send him. Since we were teaching everyone, the other kids were a motivational force for him to try and learn as much as possible.

I really wish we could do more of that and I hope the club continues to do the great work it does.

Writer-Editor: Pragnya Srikrishnan